Thinking CAP: Upland Research & Management - 13 March 2012

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust in partnership with Scotland’s Moorland Forum will be holding an event on Tuesday 13 March 2012 between 09:30 and 15:00 at the Huntingtower Hotel, Crieff Road, Perth PH1 3JT

The Thinking CAP event is being supported by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Government. It will consider the current state of evidence about upland management and how this relates to the funding available through the Scottish Rural Development Programme.  The funding options in the SRDP are under review and in the afternoon delegates will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the relevance of the current options and discuss changes that they would like to see introduced.

Registration, coffee and lunch: £12 inc VAT per attendee

2 Feb 12 - the online booking facility is now available from the GWCT website 

The Thinking CAP event has been kindly sponsored by Turcan Connell and PDG Helicopters.

Wales - Heather Burning Leaflet

A new leaflet has been published to provide guidance about heather & grass burning in Wales.  To a casual observer it is a strange document that seems to serve little purpose.

I would not argue with the sentence on the website that states, "Burning can be dangerous and cause damage to the environment and wildlife." if it was placed in context.  Where is the balancing statement about the benefits that well conducted burning can provide?

My view remains that good burning is good; bad burning needs to be stamped out.  This can only be achieved by encouraging people to get the training and experience needed to burn properly.  Emphasising the negative side of burning will result in less effort and more areas of rank heather that is looking for a way to die.  Heather beetle needs no second invitation, as I witnessed first hand in mid-Wales last year.

If we want to retain heather in Wales, it needs more management, not less.

Bleaklow gets more heather seed

The next phase of the re-seeding work on Bleaklow in the Peak District is underway with 5,500 bags of seed waiting (see the photo) to be airlifted onto the moor.  Details about the work of the MoorLIFE project have been published in the local paper.